NIGHTS OF HALLOW

Perdita was dressed in a light-colored purple dress and with the help of Emily, she combed her black hair to the back.

She stepped out of the room and made her way to her brother’s room who was her top priority at the moment. She hadn’t seen him after the incident that happened in the dining room with the king and his family.

She must have been their source of amusement yesterday. And she must have been his source of amusement too since the day they first met. He made her look like a fool, lied to her, deceived her.

Perdita’s hand balled into fists by her side as the thoughts yesterday returned to her head. She exhaled and brushed the thought away. She would wait for her brother to fully recover before they leave this place.

On her way to her brother’s room, she met Princess Sarah with two maids two steps behind her.

Perdita stopped and bowed at her. Princess Sarah equally stopped and glared at her. She asked,

”What are you called?” The way she asked the question was as if the Lady in front of her was not a human to be called a name, but even at this, Perdita answered,

”Perdita, Your Highness.” There was nothing she could do, at least not in her position. The lady was after all a member of the royal family. And not only a member of the royal family, she was undoubtedly the Princess since she was the sister of the King.

”Hmph,” Sarah puffed her cheeks and huffed with her eyes narrowed on Perdita. She continued to question ”Have we met before?”

”I don’t think so, Your Highness,” Perdita replied with the same neutral voice she had been using to answer not showing any sign of displeasure at the way the Princess was questioning her.

”Hmm. It feels as if I’ve seen you somewhere.” Sarah said with a thoughtful look before switching the topic, she questioned with the same commanding tone.

”I heard you are the king’s woman. Is it true?”

”Pardon?” Perdita’s eyes widened as she questioned back unsure of what she heard.

”Don’t make me repeat myself. I know you’re enjoying the attention of being the King’s woman. Just to let it get into your head, you’re not the first and he will dump you too. Hmph!” Princess Sarah harrumphed and walked away leaving Perdita stupefied.

The king’s woman?! Perdita internally asked with a horrified face. What was that all about? When did she become the king’s woman? When, where, and how could people think of her that way?

Now, not only was the king satisfied with lying and deceiving her, it is now the rumor of being his woman that was spreading in the castle.

Why? To further humiliate her and tarnish her image?

Perdita gritted her teeth as her eyes burned in rage directed towards the king. She felt like tearing him apart at that moment. But she couldn’t. Even if he wasn’t the king, she wouldn’t match his strength if it ever came to fight him.

How could he do that to her?! Perdita felt her eyes sting as they tried to change to red because of the anger and emotions that swirled in her. She sucked in a deep breath and tried not to think anything about Sthena.

By the time Perdita reached Marco’s room, the anger that had been boiling and wanting to erupt and set the castle on fire slowly dissipated, and immediately she saw Marco standing near the window overlooking the castle’s landscape, her anger melted like ice put on fire. The only difference was that she was the fire and Marco was the ice that made her anger melt.

”Marco,” Perdita called when she reached where she stood. She hugged him, feeling relieved that her little brother was alright.

”How are you feeling?” Perdita disengaged from the hug and asked Marco while she touched his forehead.

Marco smiled, ”I’m good, sis. Better than two days ago. How about you? I was told you have been asleep since yesterday.”

”Ah, yes. I was sleeping. I didn’t know I’ll sleep for that long. Come on, let’s go and sit, my legs hurt from standing.” Perdita tried not to give Marco the impression that something happened to her, but the suspicious look on his face was enough to know that he did not believe her.

”Hmm,” Marco nodded and led Perdita to the bed. He said, ”Tell me sis, what is wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

Perdita looked down at her hand placed on her lap, and when she looked up at him, she tried to assure him with her smile that everything was okay but woefully failed. She couldn’t form a good lie that would make Marco believe her.

She wetted her lips while Marco waited patiently for her to start speaking. Since he woke up from his unconscious state, they haven’t had the time to sit together and talk about the event that happened in the village of Woodbridge.

Perdita shifted in her sitting position and told Marco all that happened since the exorcism ritual that was conducted in their village, not missing any detail.

She excluded the part of finding out that Sthena was the King. She didn’t want to tell him yet, because telling him would mean, she will tell him about the slap from the older vampiress.

Luckily the wound had already healed, if not, she knew Marco would feel agitated and might do something rash. She knew his temper when it came to something about her.

”It’s quite fortunate we were able to escape with the help of the red-haired vampire,” Marco said after a while, and Perdita wished he wouldn’t call him the red-haired vampire. The man was their king.

At the same time, Perdita couldn’t stop her heart from softening a little remembering that without the help of the king, they would have been killed.

Perdita sighed and replied to Marco, ”Yes, we were quite lucky.”

”But it’s confusing when you said he thinks we are not originally humans. If it was true, then what are we?”

”I don’t know, Marco. He may still be wrong. Our family was not unusual in any way. I don’t know why he thinks that way.” Perdita held a thoughtful look on her face.

”I had a confusing dream today.” Perdita let Marco know what she had dreamt.

”A little girl with green eyes and the boy, what was the color of his eyes?” Marco asked.

”I don’t know again, but I think he had the same eye color as the boy. Do you think that the children might be our younger selves?” Perdita suddenly threw the question at Marco.

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A/N: Bonus Chapter for completing the power stones target for last week.

Let’s make this week 10 golden tickets and 100 power stones for the mass release of two bonus Chapters.

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